Dragon's child

•Twenty•

A/N: And here we have our antagonist, finally with a proper face. ^^

"Wh-what have you done?!"

The black cloaked figure simply laughed, stepping over the motionless bodies on the ground. "Well, well, well, a little late to the party, aren't we? Let's hope you're more fun to play with than these things." He cackled delightedly, kicking Happy out of the way carelessly.

"YOU BASTARD!! FIRE DRAGON ROAR!!" The man disappeared in a cloud of flame as Natsu rushed over to his partners. "HAPPY! LUCE!" He scooped his exceed up in his arms and knelt by Lucy's side. Neither responded, having been severely beaten into unconsciousness. "No...I need Wen-!"

"Alley-oop!" The black figure appeared suddenly behind Natsu, seized both ends of his scarf, and began swinging him through the air. "Wheeeee!!" The man cheerfully released Natsu, sending him smashing through the bridge over the river.

When the fire dragonslayer tried to pull himself out, the figure shoved him back underwater and held him there. "Your fire doesn't work underwater, what a shame." He sneered, avoiding Natsu's flailing limbs as the water bubbled furiously. "Hey, yelling just makes your air run out faster~! Keep it up, y-"

"REQUIP: HEAVEN'S WHEEL ARMOR!!" The man back flipped out of the way as the place where he'd just been was impaled with multiple swords.

"I gotcha." Gray hauled a coughing Natsu onto the pavement and whacked him on the back as he vomited up water. "We saw your distress signal. Pretty hard to miss a giant pillar of flame."

"Wasn't...intentional..." Natsu hacked up more water, cutting himself off.

Erza pulled a lacrima from her belt. "Found them, Master. The river near the marketplace. Lucy and Happy are down." Receiving confirmation, she dropped it and glared coldly at the man. His hood had dropped back, so his face and neck were now visible. His head was half shaved and his reptilian eyes gleamed out of a relatively young-looking face. But the most important detail was the tattoo on his neck, the same symbol that had been the motif in Ryuchi's old guild. "You're the Dark One." Erza said, a statement, not a question.

"Wow, gold star for you!" The man gasped sarcastically. "I guess gingers do have brains! Or is it blondes? ....naw, they definitely don't have that! Especially not her!" He cackled. Erza's glare could've frozen lava. "Aw, don't look so mad sweetheart, I only needed her to lure the dragon where I could drown him. The rest of you I'm just punishing for stealing my things." The figure simpered sarcastically, as if he was speaking down to a five-year-old.

"Ryuchi is not a thing." Gray snarked, helping a very dizzy Natsu to his feet.

"You named it?! Fuck, it's gonna be a pain in my ass reconditioning it. I don't wanna have to start all over because you motherfuckers made my weapon defective."

"URAAAAAH!!" Mira made her appearance, smashing into the earth, causing an enormous crater, that the stranger just barely escaped from. "You...how DARE you...she is a child, a child that you twisted to meet your own destructive goals...and now you want to retake her?! We won't allow it, you will pay in BLOOD for your-!!"

"Wow, each of you is stupider than the last." The man snorted. "Sorry to interrupt your little monologue, but I just couldn't take anymore of the bullshit spewing from your mouth. I gave it purpose and training, but you! Not only did you steal it from me, but you deprived it of its reason for creation and just set it loose!"